


On Musicals, Romance, and the Art of Kissing

by ErkTheWanderer



Category: Mass Effect, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Couple, F/M, Fleet and Flotilla, Fluff, Lovers, Musicals, Original Character(s), Original Turian Character(s) - Freeform, Romance, Romantic Fluff, Turian, Turians, night out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-18
Updated: 2016-01-18
Packaged: 2018-08-08 21:56:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7775140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ErkTheWanderer/pseuds/ErkTheWanderer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>So, "oc kissing week" on tumblr may have ended two days ago, but because I haven't written this much in one go for a very, very long time and I have to admit, this piece REALLY kind of exploded in my mind once I started thinking of it. Exploded, as in, it grew to the length of 3,084 words. HOT DAMN. For a little prompt like this, that seems to be quite a lot...</p><p> But man, I've been wanting to represent my beloved OCs here on the internets for the longest time now, and I was finally able to formulate a way to do so!</p><p> So, for OC kissing week 2016, enjoy Gallus Desidenius and Lucida Tillian enjoying a musical and some lovemaking! WOO!</p><p> I'm willing to accept any and all feedback, please do let me know what you guys thinks! I take effort to consider as many details as possible when writing, so... enjoy! *flails about nervously*</p>
    </blockquote>





	On Musicals, Romance, and the Art of Kissing

**Author's Note:**

> So, "oc kissing week" on tumblr may have ended two days ago, but because I haven't written this much in one go for a very, very long time and I have to admit, this piece REALLY kind of exploded in my mind once I started thinking of it. Exploded, as in, it grew to the length of 3,084 words. HOT DAMN. For a little prompt like this, that seems to be quite a lot...
> 
> But man, I've been wanting to represent my beloved OCs here on the internets for the longest time now, and I was finally able to formulate a way to do so!
> 
> So, for OC kissing week 2016, enjoy Gallus Desidenius and Lucida Tillian enjoying a musical and some lovemaking! WOO!
> 
> I'm willing to accept any and all feedback, please do let me know what you guys thinks! I take effort to consider as many details as possible when writing, so... enjoy! *flails about nervously*

“So…”

Gallus raised his eyes towards Lucida, who had been wandering aimlessly in the kitchen of their apartment for a few minutes before speaking to him.

“So…?” Gallus humored his lover, subtly raising the pitch of his voice as he replied, implying a question.

Lucida looked back to him, beige eyes shining with anticipation and mandibles flicking in a smile.

“So, for once, it’s everyone’s night off and no one else has anything planned…”

Gallus’ own mandibles seemed to open in a smile of his own. “Mmhmm…” He looked back down to the small datapad in his hands, running a finger along the display to scroll downwards on the extranet page he had pulled up. Keeping his gaze on the screen, he continued, “Got something in mind?”

The low, gravelly tone of his voice sent a chill down her spine, and Lucida had to take a moment before replying to regain her equilibrium. She loved it when he used the rumbling voice; he only used it when in the process of plotting something involving her, or during sex. Given that a number of hours had passed since the period of time that constituted “last night” had ended, his use of that low, rumbling and provocative voice that she loved so much implied the former.

His eyes, orange, fiery, and angular, standing in contrast to her round, beige and inquisitive ones met her own gaze as she finally replied to him.

“Well… there is that one thing I’ve had in mind…”

She looked downwards, gently running a small foot back and forth along the floor of the kitchen, her hands now behind her back. His eyes remained on her, particularly at the way her hands, joined together, fell at her rear. She probably didn’t realize this, but he certainly did and couldn’t help but to pay attention to it. He already knew what she was referring to anyways.

“Fleet and Flotilla? The stage production?”

He could practically hear the bells going off in his head as the positively jubilant look she sent back up his way confirmed that his answer was, indeed, correct. It had been only a day since the production had opened up on the presidium, and while this certainly wouldn’t be the first time the musical adaptation of the critically-acclaimed romance film had been performed on the citadel, it marked the first time that the two of them had free time available to themselves to go and see it.

Gallus, admittedly, had only seen bits and pieces of the film, but knew enough about it to understand what he was getting into, even without Lucida’s extensive knowledge on the topic (which she certainly loved sharing whenever the film became relevant in conversation). Also admittedly, he’d never understood what was so special about the plot besides the fact that it revolved around a romance between two different species, a quarian and a turian, to be exact. The emphasis on service to a group in both cultures put strain on their relationship, and it was Gallus’s understanding that this laid the groundwork for most of the plot. Gallus had never figured it’d be something to grab his interest, and so far in his life, it really hadn’t. Lucida was well aware of this.

But, if only to maintain the bright, buoyant and (dare he say it) truly happy look that shone in her eyes right now, then he would gladly pretend to be the citadel’s biggest _Fleet and Flotilla_ superfan for all of eternity. He didn’t feel distasteful towards it, to be honest; he’d just never been very interested in such a work, and as his beloved often liked saying about their little escapades across the citadel, “It’ll be an adventure in and of itself, won’t it?”

Therefore, within the next half hour, the two of them were freshened-up, well-dressed, and on their way to the presidium for a night full of music, romance (both onstage and in their seats, if he had anything to say about it) and, with Lucida’s presence, adventure.

****  
The presidium’s theatre was huge, massive, far larger than any other theatre she’d happened to gaze upon in her lifetime of twenty-six years. Even though she’d seen it so many times during the years she’d spent happily living on the citadel, she still couldn’t resist just taking in the sight of it on every occasion that she happened to pass it by. It was a gigantic, marvelous sort of dome, carefully built and refined time and time again over the course of hundreds of years as time and technology forever marched onward.

Lucida had long ago taught herself to appreciate the grandeur in it all. There were far too many people that didn’t seem to take the time to just stop and appreciate life, the universe, and everything they both comprised every now and again. While it would be easy to get caught up entirely in her newly-realized work as a psychologist and simply go through life’s motions as necessary, part of her job involved being optimistic for those who weren’t, and who wouldn’t want to feel (or rather, couldn’t feel) some semblance of optimism in observing just what the work of multiple species could transpire into?

Lucida took effort to savor every moment of it. It was a task that she found was much easier with Gallus around, who was now sneakily slipping his arm around her waist, bringing a hand to rest on her left hip as he looked down towards her and sweetly, _so sweetly_ , asked her,

“Ready to head in?”

It was amazing to her how Gallus could sound so passionate, with as little effort as it took to simply utter those four words.  
She greeted the loving look on his face with one of her own, taking in the essence of those bright, observant orange eyes and that sharp, roguish facial structure before replying to him, her soft and airy voice juxtaposed with the somewhat deep and throaty sound of his own,

“Whenever you are, love.”

For that, she was rewarded with a nuzzle on her forehead and another loving gaze before they proceeded onward together, towards the bright and very gaudily-decorated entrance of the theatre.

After a long wait in a very crowded ticket line consisting of theatregoers of various species, a stop at a concession stand for obligatory theatre refreshments (which consisted of two small cups of Tupari and a bag of what humans called “popcorn,” in dextro-friendly form.), and the long, arduous process of finding their seats in the theatre itself, they finally found themselves sitting together in a small booth designed for two; a sort of loveseat, set amid rows and rows of other seats designed in the same manner, obviously built to accommodate couples of various races.

The loveseat tempted her, but the presence of hundreds of other theatre patrons and her own sense of etiquette kept her from immediately falling onto her lover as soon as they were comfortably seated. For now, she’d happily settle for the presence of his hand resting gently on her thigh. Thankfully, she had no reason to resist her urge to place her own hand upon his, her small, brown fingers intertwining with his lengthy, white ones.

For the first time in what seemed to her like forever, they were having a night out just to themselves. They were both very used to being out with large groups of friends, and while they both had always enjoyed the nights of talking, clubbing, and occasionally drinking with the sort of posse that they’d managed to gather, it had become a bit of a rare treat for the two of them to go out together by themselves for something more than a simple dinner date.

Lucida wished they’d had time to do this more often in the past, but his military service alone had been enough to keep them apart for a long time, not to mention the amount of training she’d had to undergo in order to secure her position as a clinical psychologist in the service of the hierarchy.

_Hopefully now that he’s home and on a civil service track, we’ll have many more years to make up for lost time._

Thoughts of time past, and hope for their future filled her mind for a few minutes before Gallus turned to her and asked her about the upcoming program, as if to gently pull her from her thoughts and back into the pleasantness of their current state. She happily obliged him, filling him in on a wide array of details regarding _Fleet and Flotilla_ , with him listening intently until the show finally began.

She couldn’t help but to hold her free hand up to her mouth, as if to try and hold back the giddy sort of squeal that she uttered as the introductory scene unfolded on the stage…

****

“But Shalei… we can never be together. I have my duty, and you have your people.”

Based on the amount of time he’d spent watching the play, Gallus would be happy to admit that he’d been pleasantly surprised with what he’d seen so far.

In spite of the very idealistic views presented on both turian and quarian cultures (the hierarchy, as he knew from experience, was never quite that forgiving), rather melodramatic dialogue (which he imagined was probably intended, to some extent), and relatively simplistic plot, he had still ended up thoroughly enjoying the production so far. After all, the idea of two passionate young lovers being separated by their respective obligations to society struck a chord with him, even without the beauty he found in their attempts to achieve some sort of mutual understanding with one another. His enjoyment of it was probably, as he figured, very much assisted by the fact that these events seemed to run parallel with events in his own life.

Of course, there was also the fact that Lucida was there, comfortably cuddled up with him in their seat, her head as close to his as leaning it on his carapace would allow. Having her with him seemed to make anything more enjoyable.

“Not tonight. Tonight, I’m as free as the dust in the solar wind.”

Lucida’s mandibles flickered in a smile. He knew that she loved that line, in all its overwrought, theatrical goodness. From the remarkable amount of commentary she’d had to offer on the play thus far (and there had, indeed, been a lot of it, but Gallus didn’t mind it at all, and didn’t figure he would even if she hadn’t been as polite as she always was about voicing her thoughts), this melodrama was part of why she found _Fleet and Flotilla_ to be so endearing.

Although she’d become known for her bright, chipper demeanor and zest for life, it had been too long since he’d been able to see her get downright _giddy_ over something. Gallus loved it; seeing her in such bliss over something like a play seemed to give her a worldlier sort of aura. It painted interests and little pleasures onto the picture of burgeoning maturity and compassion that she’d grown to accurately represent. It filled in the spaces left open to interpretation for onlookers, making her less of a figurehead or persona, and more of the actual person that he’d had the immense to pleasure to know and love over the course of the past decade.

Amid the soothing, melodic musical interlude that the play had come to, he lovingly ran his left hand over her back and onto her side, running it up and down along the curve of her waist. He relished in the slight softness there as she shivered from the touch, leaning into his side and taking a hand of her own up to his neck, gently caressing him there.

He remembered the time when he’d first said to her that she was beautiful.

Looking down at her frame, lithe and petite, draped in loose, flowing yet fashionable garments, he knew in the very depths of his soul that he would never regret telling her so.

As the cadence rolled in to bring close to the sweet and well-timed musical phrase, she leaned away from him slightly, bringing her eyes back up once again to meet his, her gaze a silent combination of “Thank you” and “I love you.”

He made sure to return it in full, as always.

She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath, her mandibles aflutter and body quivering with the excitement of romance. He couldn’t dream of blaming her; his own heart had been pounding in his chest ever since she’d leaned into him before the musical interlude had even begun.

“Gallus…”

She opened her eyes once more.

“Lucy?”

He loved referring to her by that name. He found it cute, and thus, suitable for her.

“…would you mind if I were to try something?”

Now there was something he hadn’t heard in a while. He dipped his head slightly, in questioning.

“…like what exactly?”

The precious little woman had dipped her head down a bit as well for a moment, as if to ponder the nature of her inquiry before looking back up to him, passionate eyes taking in the chiseled, intelligent features of his face before she brought a hand up to it, holding it gently in her grasp by his left mandible.

What happened next, he had been entirely unprepared for.

She’d brought her mouth up to his face, and while this in and of itself wasn’t anything peculiar, as nuzzles of that sort were common and pleasing gestures of turian affection, the fact that she’d brought her mouth up to his own struck him as odd, but not unpleasant. It was what came afterwards that he’d been taken aback by, when he’d felt a warm, moist sort of sensation suddenly make itself known in his mouth, making smooth, teasing motions around the area of his tongue with a sort of calm, practiced precision.

She held the gesture for a few seconds longer, which to him felt entirely too short and yet, somehow, eternal. The whole gesture had left him very taken aback indeed, but in the short amount of time that she’d separated her mouth from his and looked up to him, as if for approval, his mind had managed to process exactly what had happened and he was already cupping the back of her head within his hands and pressing his own mouth up to hers, slowly and cautiously working his own tongue within her maw, her warm breath providing a lovely tickling sensation.

They spent the entirety of the next thirty seconds practicing this gesture a few more times before finally separating in full and catching their breaths properly, _Fleet and Flotilla_ temporarily forgotten in lieu of lovemaking. Gallus was the first one to speak up afterwards,

“That was a kiss...”

Well, more accurately, those were kisses, but he couldn’t imagine she’d care to correct the error. Who could blame him, after all?

“Oh yeah…”

Hell, he wondered if she’d even heard it, given the way she’d voiced that remark.

“Holy shit, Gallus, that felt _wonderful._ ”

She giggled quietly in pleasure as he held her, his arms having migrated to her waist, that lovely, petite little waist that he adored so much. His own heart continued to pump with considerable enthusiasm in his chest, the past few minutes having been so calm and serene, yet so intensely passionate. He couldn’t blame her for being a bit overwhelmed by it all; she certainly wasn’t the only one, and he’d liked to believe he’d done a pretty good job of learning such an alien gesture of affection just then.

For the next hour or so, the two of them enjoyed the rest of the play, intertwined in the loveseat, which acted as their own sort of sanctuary in spite of the various other individuals surrounding them.

****

After the play had finally come to a cathartic, satisfying close, they patiently waited for the rest of the crowd to make its way out of the theatre before attempting to leave themselves. This tactic, a favorite of hers in crowded places, gave them plenty of time to recuperate from the events of the past few hours. The brief intermissions had done nothing to take her off of the euphoric sort of high that seeing _Fleet and Flotilla_ live and “practicing foreign culture” with Gallus had given her.

After about fifteen minutes, the two of them had exchanged quite a long stream of thoughts regarding the spectacle they’d just had the pleasure of viewing, and (much to the pleasure of both of them) one more passionate kiss before gathering what was left of their refreshments and finally making their way out of the theatre. In spite of the always-rapid pace of the world around them, they simply strolled through at their own speed, drinking it all in, with her fitting contentedly under his arm once again as they made their way outside to call for a skycar. The wait was long, and given that neither of them had eaten a proper dinner, this allowed them time to briefly stop for a bit of sustenance in the form of a turian “street food” made up of lightly-cooked worms served in a tangy orange sauce. Gallus had managed to convince Lucida, in spite of her always-lacking appetite to partake in a small dish of her own before they made their way to the skycar which had finally arrived for them.

Thankfully, the trip back to their apartment was quick, and in what felt like no time at all, the two of them were back in the comfort of their own home and in the process of undressing. Lucida wasted little time in making her way to the shower, and she’d barely begun to contemplate the riveting events of the night so far before Gallus, completely nude, had joined her under the warm water.

_Oh, of course,_ she thought, as it wasn’t atypical for him to do so. She couldn’t say that she minded it, anyways. With someone like him, how could she?

Beneath the rush of the hot water, their bodies slick with moisture, he kissed her once again, gently and yet with no lack of passion.

She looked forward to the years to come, and had every intention of practicing that gesture, again and again, until she could say that she’d perfected it.


End file.
